Its been many months since our last post, but that isn’t because we have been inactive. As announced, Ray joined Johanna, Lara and Dunja for the Camino da Costa in the Spring of 2018. This was a life-changing experience and one which I am still processing. For more have a look at our PADometer writings.

Walking has been somewhat compromised by some minor injuries to knees and ribs.

Its been a time for re-visiting our purpose and we have written about this in the latest PADometer too. We invite you to check out our insights and new directions.

We’re happy to announce that our Padakun team is ready to roll on the Camino Portuguese this Spring. Ray, Lara and Johanna (so far) will be meeting in Porto on May 14 to set off to Santiago. It should take us approximately 14 days to complete the Coastal Route, known as Camino da Costa. Each of us has our own accomodation but we will be able to cross paths, like true pilgrims, as the situation finds us.

We arrive in Compostella, the common goal for all pilgrims on June 7. Lara will head home from here, Ray and possibly Johanna will then complete the Finisterre section for another week.

If you are reading this and want to join our group, let us know. We’d love to share it with others.

These are the badges available to new members and aspiring pilgrims through the Canadian Company of Pilgrims. Padakun just became a member of the CCoP.

The Canadian Company of Pilgrims (CCoP) is a non-denominational volunteer-run association that supports Canadians interested in the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The CCoP provides information and generates awareness and interest in the Camino through a network of chapters across Canada and also through its website and Facebook page. Local Chapters provide a forum for the exchange of information about the Camino and also offer practical training and information sessions.

The latest book delighting me is Lauren Elkin’s Flaneuse: Women Walk the City. Elkin is a contemporary American essayist who writes about culture, and this time has combined it with her passion for urban walking.

The flaneur is a concept of a wandering, strolling urban dilettante which emerged in Paris in the late 19th century. The idea captivated the Situationist movement and captured a character who loved to roam the city streets, to see and be seen. An exclusively a male image, writers like Will Self, have tried to define such urban walking as a curiously male activity. Elkin disagrees.

She does not think the female walkers did or do mirror or duplicate males, because the roles and identity of women in urban environments was and is so different. Hence the flaneuse.

For her own walking, she writes: Let me walk. Let me go at my own pace. Let me feel life as it moves through and around me. Give me drama. Give me unexpected curvilinear corners. Give me churches and unsettling storefronts and parks I can lie down in. The city turns you on, gets you going.moving thinking, engaging. The city is life itself.

I am only part-way into this book and I already can welcome Elkin as a fellow contemplative walker.

Starting to get serious now about the final details for our Spring walk on the Caminho da Costa , the longer coastal route of the Portuguese Camino. It is about 175 km and runs from Porto to Redondela, where it re-joins the Caminho Centrale, the main route for the last 100 km to Compostella.

Here’s my planning route map:

We’ll be announcing more details in the JanuaryPADometer, due out January 28.